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News24.com | High Court dismisses application of man wanting to travel to Eastern Cape for funeral

The high court in Mpumalanga has ruled against a Mbombela man who sought an order which would allow him to travel to the Eastern Cape for his grandfather’s funeral.

“I cannot accede to the relief the applicant seeks because in doing so, I will be authorizing the applicant to break the law under judicial decree – that no court can do,” Acting Judge Henk Roelofse ruled.

“In addition, no matter how careful and diligent the applicant will conduct himself, not only the applicant but many others may be exposed to unnecessary risk, even death, if I grant the applicant the relief he seeks.”

The man, cited in court papers as Karel Willem van Heerden, had been informed by his mother on Friday that his grandfather had died in a fire in Hofmeyr in the Eastern Cape and that the funeral will be held sometime next week.

“The circumstances of this application are extremely upsetting. It shows in the crudest manner the crude effects of the final lock down regulations upon a family,” Roelofse noted.

The application had been brought to his attention on Friday afternoon, when the lockdown regulations were in full force and effect.

Van Heerden’s grandfather had died that morning. He in his application requested that he be be temporarily exempted from the traveling restrictions and be allowed to leave Mbombela on 28 March and return on 7 April.

Regulations gazetted after President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a state of disaster and subsequently a lockdown state that people who are not essential workers may not move between provinces and districts during the lockdown as government tried to contain the spread of the coronavirus which has claimed one life and infected more than 1000.

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